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Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers
http://forum.asterisk2billing.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=7734
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Author:  Chilling_Silence [ Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:17 am ]
Post subject:  Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers

Hi all,

So I now have a fully functioning A2billing-1.6 install on an Elastix system, thanks to an install script I found on Elastix.org!

Basically I've got a system that they need to be able to bill their regular customers for calling in on a dedicated SIP trunk to their PBX, which then goes straight to their Support Queue. This is because they run a small Helpdesk, and they want regular customers to be able to call in, and then bill them at a later stage based on their Caller ID number.

Basically I've had a bit of a look through all the documentation and it appears to be centered around Calling Cards, Prepaid Billing, and customers dialing back out. In this scenario the customer is purely looking to receive calls inbound on their PBX and bill the customers for that time.

Is this at all possible with A2Billing, and if so, does anybody have any documentation which is more specific to this, or perhaps some pointers for me?

Thanks in advance


Chill.

Author:  jroper [ Tue Jun 01, 2010 8:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers

Hi

Yes, this is all doable, you just make an agi-conf that is more suitable for VoIP, rather than calling card, e.g. don't answer the call, don't play audio, number try =1, use_dnid = yes, no balance or other messages played.

You also give your customer the VoIP settings as found in customers / VoIP settings.

Joe

Author:  Chilling_Silence [ Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Is there any paid support where I can have somebody assist me with that setup? From what you've mentioned it probably won't take long but I've unfortunately got so much on my plate right this moment that wrapping my head around this from scratch is potentially a bit much.

I guess my issue is a lack of understanding of the underlying asterisk workings, and specifically how it ties in to A2Billing, though I am working on it :-/

From what I can gather, I need to create some sort of additional entry in /etc/asterisk/extensions_a2billing.conf (which is being loaded from /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf

Right now /etc/asterisk/extensions_a2billing.conf just contains:

[a2billing]
exten => _X.,1,Answer
exten => _X.,n,Wait(1)
exten => _X.,n,DeadAGI(a2billing.php|1)
exten => _X.,n,Wait(1)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

Are you able to provide any other assistance?

I'm also looking to blog this upon completion, hopefully with a nice breakdown of steps, for future reference where others may want something similar :)

Appreciate your time, thanks


Chill.

Author:  jroper [ Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers

Hi

Star2Billing can provide support and training. Star2Billing is the commercial arm of A2Billing set-up to provide a revenue stream for A2Billing to maintain and develop the product.

For customers who come directly to us, we normally recommend a managed install as described at http://www.star2billing.com/managed-install, this includes an installation, with or without FreePBX, new users usually go with FreePBX to avoid complicated dial-plan work. This also includes basic training from setting up a simple calling card system through to VoIP, IP-PBX termination, and using VoIP endpoints, as well as covering DID delivery, and basic charging and accounting.

We can also help out with just an hour's worth of consultancy if you have already set everything up, and you are happy that it is a stable and secure installation.

If you want more details, then drop me a line at [email protected].

Yours

Joe Roper
Commercial Director, A2Billing.

Author:  jroper [ Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers

In respect of your questions, presumably you have your endpoints registered either using text files created by A2Billing, or you have set up realtime.

I also presume you have set up the voip endpoints in the default a2billing context, so the a2billing context for a VoIP endpoint would be something like:-

Code:
[a2billing]
exten => _X.,1,DeadAGI(a2billing.php|1)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup


Joe

Author:  Chilling_Silence [ Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Usage for an inbound call center billing regular customers

I'm unsure about Realtime, but I haven't made any changes to my Extensions, presumably thats where I need to start my venture?

I've already got a system fully setup and running Elastix with all their Ext's and call routing etc setup nicely, so I'd prefer not to start from scratch.

Have emailed you, so presumably we'll continue discussion through that?

Are you OK with me blogging the outcome of all this? I'm keen to help out in the community where possible (I blog a lot for Elastix), but I also don't want to take away from your livelihood.

Appreciate your time, thanks


Chill.

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